Coptic Christians under attack.Cairo -- In its May issue, p. 32, Catholic Insight published a news brief on the fears of Egyptian Copts facing deportation deportation, expulsion of an alien from a country by an act of its government. The term is not applied ordinarily to sending a national into exile or to committing one convicted of crime to an overseas penal colony (historically called transportation). from Canada (May 2006, p. 32). Now comes word from Alexandria, Egypt's second-largest city, of knife-attacks on Coptic believers at four churches there. Three men have been arrested and charged in the attacks, which occurred during Mass. One person was killed and 17 injured in·jure tr.v. in·jured, in·jur·ing, in·jures 1. To cause physical harm to; hurt. 2. To cause damage to; impair. 3. . The attack at the fourth church was foiled by a policeman hired to guard it. One Egyptian government spokesman suggested that the attackers were mentally unbalanced, but this claim has been dismissed by Church officials and parishioners as spurious spu·ri·ous adj. Similar in appearance or symptoms but unrelated in morphology or pathology; false. spurious simulated; not genuine; false. . The faithful have organised protests calling for increased security around their churches. Alexandria was the scene of sectarian violence Sectarian violence or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of thought, not necessarily religious (e.g. in October 2005 when four people died in Muslim-instigated riots (LifesiteNews.com, Zenit, April 16, 2006). Some take it to mean that with increased Muslim fanaticism Fanaticism See also Extremism. Adamites various sects preaching a return to life before the fall. [Christian Hist.: Brewer Note-Book, 8] assassins Moslem murder teams used hashish as stimulus (11th and 12th centuries). the 1500year old social contract between Muslims and Copts is unraveling. Christians make up ten percent of Egypt's population. |
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